Gp surgery useless - is it bad where you live?

[Elsa2000]

I recently had a medical issue crop up. I’m lucky enough to have bupa so I went to a private virtual GP. They suggested I needed a stool test. They said my own GP will take care of that. They are virtual so can’t do tests.

I rang my GP and they wouldn’t help. I emailed over the screenshots from my BUPA GP app but they insist it must be a consultants letter before they give me the test.

Finally I get a message saying “call us” I called at 4:45pm one day and I was 20th in queue so I gave up.

I go to the GP surgery today. Queue out the door and one person on reception. Takes 20 minutes to even get to front of queue. Pharmacy shut due to lack of staff. I note that the name board of GPs has barely any names on it.

they still won’t help me. I try to book an appointment to discuss. They say their next appointment is mid august.

I must now call at 8am on Monday until I’m lucky to get a VIRTUAL appointment.

this is insanity. I asked if they had a staffing issue and the Receptionist admitted they can’t get people to work there.

this surgery is the biggest in town and serves most of the large town.

we are in trouble aren’t we? It shouldn’t take this much effort to poo in a tube. So many inefficiencies.

I also picked up a blood test form at same time. Nowhere does blood tests apart from the small hospital. I had 30 people in front of me. It shuts at 3pm. Why aren’t blood tests automated? Why do I need to get a bit of paper from my gp to then take to hospital.

why are there no doctors? Why do they all knock off early or work part time? Why is the service so bad? I live in the south east.

Also don’t forget to give anonymous feedback regarding your local health care via Care Opinion.

usually the practise manager will respond to your anonymous feedback & sometimes the CQC will use the feedback when scoring.

Ours is so awful I can't even describe it. Ditto our local hospital.

I don't even care about the politics anymore. I just want to be able to see a doctor if me or my loved ones need to.

@Elsa2000 I've had my share of NHS cockups. But I've also had more than my share of excellent service.

being told, while out of the country that I had a small brain tumour, rang GP as soon as I got home. Got an appointment within an hour,hospital appointment within a week, ct scan less than a week later. It was a tiny cyst.

had a blood test on a Friday morning. Telephone call and follow up text on Saturday and Sunday respectively saying my sodium levels were low and a ttelephone consultation arranged.

so I'm pretty confident that my surgery can, and does, spring into action pretty quickly. I'm sorry you're does not.

I work in a surgery and am a patient at another, both are excellent and have been seeing patients both face to face and by telephone throughout the last couple of years. The staff, from partners down, all work bloody hard

It's all very well seeing the private GP who requests the test but, if the GP is authorising that to be done on the NHS, they need to know it is the right thing so they are within their rights to say they need to review the consultation notes or letter first. Technically an episode of care should be all NHS or all private so this is a bit dodgy when a private GP, who has claimed a fee for a consultation, expects the GP, who has not, to absorb the admin and testing

My GP surgery remains brilliant.
But I also live in an area with far fewer GP vacancies than average.

London.
We have one that is notoriously appalling, and one that's really brilliant (can phone and get through easily any time of the day). Our FB local group is constantly full of posts about how dire the former is, and each post is full of comments saying "move to surgery B, they're great."

It's so variable! We relocated 200 miles last year for work. Both locations in theory have similar number of patients per GP and similar populations.
Old location you could ring up, get a phone appt with a GP within a couple of days (same day if urgent), needed it twice, both times got sent same day to a GP hub so someone (once a paramedic, once a nurse) could listen to my chest. First time antibiotics prescribed and issued direct to late night pharmacy next to GP hub. Second time advice given and OTC meds suggested. So didn't see GP but spoke to them and treated appropriately and got what I needed.

New location you can't phone for appts, it's all online. Go through labyrinthine online system which promises me a contact within four weeks. Condition gets worse so after 3 weeks I put in an urgent request, which supposedly is actioned within 48 hours. After 4 weeks I get a txt telling me I have a GP appt the following day at a time in the middle of the day. I then get another txt 2 hours later ending the time to 3 hours earlier. Txt also says if I cancel this appt I have to start the whole process again. Fortunately I happen to be available and can juggle work around to make it to this appt. Go to appt. They're running 45 mins late. GP is lovely and listens carefully to what is wrong and we agree course of action - medication, blood tests, scan. She sends me off with the blood test form. I go to pharmacy to collect prescription, but it isn't there. Still not there two days later. Walk round to GP to check - receptionist reveals the prescription wasn't 'actioned'. Turns out the scan wasn't 'actioned' either. Another GP eventually sorts the prescription and I return to the pharmacy for the third time to get it. A week later I get a txt saying the scan has been requested. Meanwhile go to blood test at out of town blood test hub which is very efficient and get results back within two days - txt from GP about this. I'm still waiting for the scan - it's about 8 weeks since this whole palaver kicked off now.

The thing about the experience here is that I've had to be very on the ball, assertive and flexible to get the medical care I need. I've made multiple trips to the pharmacy and GP reception (they don't answer the phones) to get it sorted. And it's taken ages and with an assumption that I can just drop everything and be available within 24 hours to attend the GP appt - within a month of trying to make it.

Ours is crap. I really worry about elderly or vulnerable patients.

I couldn’t even get my son an appointment when I thought he had a chest infection….. he’s asthmatic,a child and wheezing like crazy. They just said “sorry no appointments try again tomorrow”

no wonder A&E is rammed

This

Re private GPs, it depends what your private insurance covers. Does it cover tests or just the advice? Check out the small print.

Maybe soon good GP catchment areas will be seen as desirable places to live, like 'outstanding' school catchments?!
We should start a list!

Was talking to a friend the other day and that’s literally one of the reasons they don’t want to leave the area. Good GPs are like gold dust!

Mine are useless. My DF (different part of the country) called his surgery at the opening time of 8am yesterday. Got through after being on hold for ten minutes and they had no appointments left. It's appalling and people are going to have serious health conditions missed because they cannot get appointments. There aren't enough GPs. The only thing that will plug the gap is if many, many overseas-trained doctors are brought in.

My surgery has no online booking or email facility. I have suggested to my surgery that they introduce e-consult to help those of us that cannot sit on a phone at 8.30 in the morning but they said they have no plans for it.

These BUPA GPs havens obligation to follow any guidelines. That is why they advice you to go to your GP for any test. Your NHS GP is not at all required to honour the BUPA GP request. NHS GP still has to follow the NHS guidelines for any test, any scans or any prescription. You are wasting your time by gaping to these BUPA GPs, who work on cloud 9 and work like american style healthcare system.

As a NHS Hospitalist, I have binned hundreds (if not a thousand) similar requests for clostridium difficile testing from these American GPs from patients with no loose stools but complaining of only tiredness, fatigue and lack of energy. I feel for the NHS GP because they are stuck between rock and hard surface.

There is staffing crisis in NHS which has evolved over since 2002. I dont want to get into the politics but no one is a saint. Every MP since 2002 kept lying to the public that the number of doctors is increasing. Last year saw the highest number of GPs drop out from the GMC list. Doctors with 10+ years experience can't afford to work more because they will end up paying more tax than what they take home once their gross annual pay crosses 110k.

BMA, NHS Pensions have brought this to the attention of politicians and HMRC but no one wants to address it. That is why majority of GPs are salaried and work part time; not that they love playing golf, but they get penalised for working more.
And the current political party in westminster has only one aim, "To privatise NHS at any costs before 2024". They imposed job contracts on junior doctors, They have cut the number of beds in ALL NHS HOSPITALS in the name of moving services to community, They burn't their hands with the first venture of privatisation UK healthcare in the form of first Hospital (Hillingdon) and first Primary care (Virgin healthcare).
I dont have tell you lot on mumsnet what is the impact of shortage of 40K nurses. You all know better than me. Qualified nurse is replaced with nursing associate and HCA. They do a good job but can't be the same as a RGN.

Why on earth can’t the private gp refer you somewhere for a test?

You can order a home testing kit. Either one you do yourself (not sure of the accuracy) or one you send away to a lab, like this. www.healthily.co.uk/tests/helicobacter-pylori-test

My GP surgery is just plain weird. When I registered there about 7 years ago the doctors were all locums and pretty useless if I’m honest but you could get an appointment fairly swiftly.

Then they got a couple of really good permanent doctors but the appointment booking line was only open for 15 minutes maximum each day for same day appointments only. Not great when you aren’t able to call at exactly 8am.

They’ve now merged with another surgery and are seemingly psychic as I’ve got an appointment on Thursday that I haven’t requested. I haven’t planned to be ill but they obviously know more than I do. I shall await my fate with interest.

Yep agree with PPs there's a national shortage of GPs which been warned about for many years. It takes years to train a GP so there's no quick fix for this.
Many GPs are women now and they have caring responsibilities so they don't want to work 60hr weeks! This problem needs addressing at government level.

And OP you say your flexible working request was turned down. If you were a GP and that happened you would just hand in your notice and move to another health centre that's desperate to have you.

Oh and Brexit has exacerbated workforce shortages in many sectors. We now have more job vacancies than people looking for jobs.

Agreed. It makes no difference if GPs are private or not, if there are not enough, some people will always struggle to get appointments.

'Many GPs are women now and they have caring responsibilities so they don't want to work 60hr weeks! This problem needs addressing at government level.'

This is an excellent example of how the patriarchy ends up harming everyone. Society forces women to take on these caring roles with the result that more female doctors end up in GP because the hours suit 'family life' (read: mens expectations of women looking after the kids in the evenings and weekends) and go for part time again - again often because husbands don't want to, or because childcare is so expensive and obviously that's a woman's job to sort that all out and pay for it.

Maybe if the burden of care and the mental load was lifted from women more female doctors would work more days. Maybe if more was expected of men at home more male doctors would go into general practice.